LITTLE ROCK -- Two weeks after 10-year-old Ja'Aliyah Hughes was shot and killed in Boyle Park, Jeff McHan attended his niece's birthday party at one of the park's pavilions across the street from Ja'Aliyah's balloon-laden memorial.
McHan said he generally feels safe in the city's parks, where the Police Department decided to increase its presence this weekend in response to recent violence, including Ja'Aliyah's death in the crossfire of bullets during an argument.
"Maybe if a cop had been around, those guys wouldn't have done what they did," McHan said.
Two suspects were arrested in the Boyle Park shooting, which also left a person injured. The Police Department is also investigating a similar incident from March 21 in Murray Park, in which a man was injured by gunfire from an AK-47-style firearm.
Police have responded to 22 incidents at Boyle Park and 16 at Murray Park since Jan. 1. Twelve of the incidents at Boyle Park involved firearms or reports of shots being fired, according to data provided by the Police Department.
Allsopp Park has seen 15 police responses this year. None involved firearms, but 11 were for theft of property or breaking and entering vehicles.
Department spokesman Sgt. Eric Barnes said patrols will pass through the parks fairly regularly, depending on the traffic.
McHan was not the only person Saturday afternoon to say a stronger police presence in parks might reduce violent crime there.
Courtney Paschal's 6-year-old daughter and her daughter's 5-year-old best friend played together Saturday on the playground at Allsopp Park while Paschal watched them. Paschal agreed that people might be discouraged from acting violently if they knew police were in the vicinity.
"Kids want to play [and] they want to be outside, and now we have to be so cautious about taking them out," Paschal said.
Jacob Glose and his family moved to Little Rock in August and are still getting to know the city, he said. He watched his two daughters play in the creek Saturday at Kanis Park.
Whether increased police activity improves public safety depends on the community's relationship with the police, which might not be the same throughout the entire city, Glose said.
"I don't know if it's a guaranteed thing that police presence immediately creates a sense of safety and security," he said. "It would be very contextual to the part of the city and what the Little Rock Police Department represents to them."
Others said an increased police presence might not necessarily be effective and that people's individual choices make more of a difference.
Kerry Evans is a regular at Murray Park, where he said he has always felt safe. He said the overall safety of the park depends on who is there at any moment.
"Police is needed everywhere," Evans said. "It's really [about] people watching what they do and when they do it, and always being cautious of your surroundings."
Darren Peters said Saturday he regularly plays basketball on the courts at Boyle Park, up the road from Ja'Aliyah's memorial, and has done so for several years. He said a police presence might deter some crime and violence but not all of it, since some people might "have their minds made up."
Parental guidance at home is important for stopping criminal activity before it starts, including the shooting that killed Ja'Aliyah, Peters said.
"Whoever did it, if their parents had better control of their child's life, like what they've got going on outside the household, you can probably stop a lot of stuff from happening," he said.